Wednesday 9 December 2020, marks International Anti-Corruption Day (IACD). This year’s theme, “Recover with Integrity,” focuses on COVID-19 and emphasises that inclusive COVID-19 recovery can only be achieved with integrity, and sport is no exception.

As part of the awareness campaign linked to International Anti-Corruption Day, we would like to draw your attention to a video that was created by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to highlight the importance of tackling corruption in sport.

Through the Programme on Safeguarding Sport from Corruption, the UNODC provides substantial support to Governments and sports organisations in order to combat crime and corruption both on and off the field of play. By tackling match-fixing, organised crime, as well as detecting wrongdoing and understanding the threats to sport, they are effectively building bridges between sport, law enforcement and criminal justice authorities, so that we can preserve and safeguard the level playing field and integrity at the heart of all sports.

On this important day, we encourage all National Federations to familiarise themselves with the key topics around this theme (find out more here www.anticorruptionday.org), and would also like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the specific measures in place for equestrian sport:

  • The FEI is a member of Task Force 3 of the International Partnership Against Corruption in Sport (IPACS), which is a founding member of the UNODC together with the Council of Europe, IOC, OECD and UK Sport.
  • One of our key “integrity” mechanisms is the Equestrian Community Integrity Unit (ECIU), which operates independently from the FEI and was created to protect integrity principles within the equestrian community, including, but not limited to, the Clean Sport programme and betting or corruption risks. It is responsible for investigating any integrity issues related to the FEI, Headquarters, and all bodies whether volunteer or not.
  • Clean Sport is key to integrity in any sport and we have built, together with the community, extremely robust programmes to safeguard this important level playing field for both our horse and human athletes can compete.
  • Prevention of Competition Manipulation: To protect athletes effectively and ensure fair competition, the FEI with the help of the IOC, has developed processes for raising awareness, monitoring, reporting and investigating any occurrences of competition manipulation in equestrian sport.

#UnitedAgainstCorruption

#IACD2020

#RecoverBetter